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Weekly Top Shares 1-13-12

By Andy Stevens on January 13, 2012

So it begins – after the euphoria of the New Year come introspection and frantic attempts at self-betterment. Everyones trying to get in shape quickly, be more interesting, have some perspective on the past year, and on and on. Of course, there was also no shortage of folks making apocalyptic predictions. And in this day and age, the end of the world doesnt come in the form of hellfire raining down upon us, the rapture or anything quite so dramatic. If the Weekly World News is to be believed (and who wouldnt trust that venerable supermarket-checkstand staple of tabloids and absurdia?), the world will end on March 15. When Facebook shuts down. Or so they claim. Well let you read the facts and make your own judgements.

In slightly less apocalyptic news, 7-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams is going vegan. The famously muscle-bound tennis dynamo has switched to an all-raw diet of fruits, veggies, grains and nuts in her battle against a debilitating immune disorder shes been stricken with. It remains to be seen how effective this strategy will be, but if there are vegan bodybuilders, we dont see why there couldnt be a vegan tennis champion.

Anyone whos ever puzzled through the vagaries of a second language will appreciate this compendium of English pronounciations. Seriously, native English speakers are lucky not to have to figure out why bought is pronounced differently than drought. Or why the rps is silent in corps but not in corpse. Or why hyphen rhymes with roughen. Given how many inconsistencies there are, its a surprise anyone at all is even semi-literate these days. Take a look through the whole list and see if there are any words that stop you in your tracks. Well leave you to it, at least until the next installment of top shares.